She had gone a lap down (16th) and received the lucky dog on the caution. The crew took a big swing at the car because the second half of the run the handling went away and she dropped a lot of positions after running in the top 10 for the first half of the run. After the caution she had driven from the back of the field and had just caught the other lead lap cars when the tire blew (15th or 16th).

Tony Jr. said they most likely melted the bead from brake heat...they had been having a problem with the brakes being too cool so they taped them off during the pit stop (along with a bunch of other adjustments to the car). Danica indicated she didn't turn the brake fans on during the run after the pit stop because they had the problem of them being too cool in the previous run so she learned she needed to put the fans back on until the chattering starts.

Up until the blown tire she was having the best short-track weekend she has had between practice, qualifying, and the early part of the race. The second part of the first run wasn't good as she lost a bunch of positions but she looked good in the first half of the run and in the second run before the tire blew she passed a lot of cars to get back in the hunt with the lead lap cars.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. set a pretty fast pace and was definitely the class of the entire field.

She started the race tenth, and moved up to ninth early. Then her car started to go away and she dropped to 15th The first 70 laps of that race was all green and she got lapped. She got the free pass after Jeff Green cut a tire. She proceeded to move up through the field and got back up into the top 15. Then her tire blew.

She should take a lot away from this weekend. She was fairly competitive the whole weekend at a track that is pretty much a short track. If she hadn't cut a tire, she would have probably ended up with a top ten. She'll do great this weekend.

funblvble wrote:She had gone a lap down (16th) and received the lucky dog on the caution. The crew took a big swing at the car because the second half of the run the handling went away and she dropped a lot of positions after running in the top 10 for the first half of the run. After the caution she had driven from the back of the field and had just caught the other lead lap cars when the tire blew (15th or 16th).

Tony Jr. said they most likely melted the bead from brake heat...they had been having a problem with the brakes being too cool so they taped them off during the pit stop (along with a bunch of other adjustments to the car). Danica indicated she didn't turn the brake fans on during the run after the pit stop because they had the problem of them being too cool in the previous run so she learned she needed to put the fans back on until the chattering starts.

Up until the blown tire she was having the best short-track weekend she has had between practice, qualifying, and the early part of the race. The second part of the first run wasn't good as she lost a bunch of positions but she looked good in the first half of the run and in the second run before the tire blew she passed a lot of cars to get back in the hunt with the lead lap cars.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. set a pretty fast pace and was definitely the class of the entire field.